Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Sunday December 28, 2003 @10:21AM
from the marshall-will-provide-the-op-tech dept.

PSaltyDS writes "According to this AP story, the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is celebrating its 40th anniversary by revealing a few dozen of its secrets for a new museum inside its headquarters near Washington.
When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings. Besides the jungle transmitter, the exhibits include a robotic catfish, a remote-controlled dragonfly and a camera strapped to the chests of pigeons and released over enemy targets in the 1970s.
There is also an International Spy Museum in D.C. with more pics, including an early version of the Pigeon-Cam."

I have always wondered at the absence of such things in the various SciFi universes. The crew of the Enterprise, locked in a cell by this week's bad guy, is always free to build a "sub-space anti-tachyon field inversion beacon", or some such, out of Jordy's visor because there are NO bugging devices in any of the plots. "Nanites" and other nano-tech stuff run through several episodes, but somehow never get married up with so much as a security cam and a microphone in the Enterprise's brig. When you confine the Ferengi to a stateroom for trying to blow up your ship, shouldn't you at least keep an eye on them?

And we mustnt forget that famous cat that they stuffed full of wires and gadgets for spying on and spent millions of dollars developing only to have the cat run over before it got to where it was supposed to go.

Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: "They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that."

I sure hope Corporate America does not get a hold of this technology. Then again, it may be the only way to make citizen coders be able

...and in a related story, video proof of the existence of yeti's was found today by a camera carrying pigeon. Sources say that the owner of the pigeon was tipped off that there may be a yeti in the area due to the eaves dropping tiger dung that he had accidently dropped in the area.

Given that you'd have to live in DC, or close to it, to run out of Smithsonians to visit (let alone the many other free governmental attractions), why the heck you'd set up an expensive commercial museum in the place is hard to understand.

The lines to get into this place literally go around the block. When I was in Washington in October we had taken the Metro to Chinatown for lunch, and literally ran into this place while walking around.

It looked alot like people lined up waiting to get into a nightclub. Buy your tickets in advance, online... and expect it to be packed like the Smithsonian's on Saturday or Sunday.

In another news, the DARPA sponsored a secret project in TCPIP development to support the pigeon-cam early in the 90's. Due to its confidential nature, the details remain sketchy. To the best of my knowledge, it is the most comprehensive document [faqs.org] leaked from the project so far. If you are onto spying technology, I recommend you to learn it by heart. It can be taken offline anytime....

When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings.

Vietnam vets have talked about these for years, I also heard stories that they disguised radio beacons as tiger droppings as well. Special forces could call in air strikes and guide the fighter/bombers to the target with a beacon that looked like tiger poop.

I went to the Spy Museum in DC a couple months after it opened. I wasn't that impressed. It seems like they still have some kinks to work out.

A lot of stuff was recreations. Few of the exhibits seemed to be the actual items. There is a "James Bond" car exhibit which is literally just a car that has spotlights shined at certain parts while a radio says what secret weapon could be hidden inside.

There is one section where children can climb through air ducts. The racket that is created as dumb parents let their children stomp and yell through the air ducts ruins the whole exhibit room.

I think all museums are a little rough around the edges when they first open. Maybe I'll check out the Spy Museum again in several years. As it currently stands, you'll learn more about spies by surfing around on google.

Besides the jungle transmitter, the exhibits include a robotic catfish, a remote-controlled dragonfly and a camera strapped to the chests of pigeons and released over enemy targets in the 1970s. The secret gadgets currently used by CIA are left to the imagination of visitors."

"The pigeons' missions remain classified, made possible only after the CIA secretly developed a camera weighing only as much as a few coins. An earlier test with a heavier camera in the skies over Washington failed after two days whe

If you live around Washington, or are visiting the area, you might also be interesting in seeing the National Cryptological Museum near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. More information is available here. [nsa.gov]

Thanks to its technological superiority, the CIA war in Vietnam was a stunning success. Combined with vehement Presidential and Congressional backing, the decade-long committment of massive troops, air superiority, and compelling kill-ratios turned the tide in Vietnam. We immediately brought the War on Communism to a healthy, decisive close, with millions of Vietnamese dancing in the streets to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

Now our 21st Century CIA is again rising to the occasion in the War on Terrorism. Just as their partnership with justice in the War on Drugs has eliminated that scourge from the American prospect, our tech supremacy in Afghanistan and Iraq is swiftly delivering peace and freedom from the forces of fear. We can learn so much from the CIA museum, with its smart turds and omniscient birdbrains. With our arsenal and steely-eyed leaders, not to mention god on our side, American supremacy will remain as unsullied as it has been since the 1960s.

The CIA is effective in making gadgets. Winning a war, especially a guerilla war of counterinsurgency, requires policies, strategy, and for America, the whole truth about the reasons to go in, and when to get out. Tech superiority is not enough. If we learned from Vietnam, we wouldn't be in the mess in Iraq we've got. Rumsfeld is especially amnesiac, as he was the guy in charge when we finally admitted defeat 30 years ago.

The best part about ePoop is not that you can hide it, but that the intelligence officers of the other side now have to check each and every one to make sure it is real. That makes it tough to hire and keep the "best and brightest".

During the months leading up to Pearl Harbor, the ONI (Office of Navel Intelligence) spotted pigeons flying over critical installations on the West Coast. After bringing them down, they found cameras (ingenuously small considering this was the late '30s) with timers, rigged to take pictures of the installations.

Apparently, the Japanese would send out pigeons until they got what they wanted (since, of course, the pigeons might be eaten by predators or just decide to avoid the installation). This was descr

CIA is one of the most evil organizations in the last 50 years. Following in the footsteps of other similar spy organizations like the SS and the KGB, the CIA is responsible for hundreads of thousands of deaths and for torturing many more.

I would urge Americans to limit their agents to WITHIN their country. Overthrowing other governments, killing innocent people, and spreading torture techniques is not my idea of defense. You want to protect your country? Use the agents to track and monitor people WITHI

First of all, it's YOU who needs to pick up a few books. UBL's $300million estimate is way off. He is worth around $30million (not $300m as CIA likes to claim). As far as him going to Afghanistan after the war, what's your point?

BTW, if you are going to attack me on such an important issue, why don't you post with your real name like I do? Scared of agents?